Stories

As a specialist deep tech venture capital firm, the unique advantages of deep tech investments, combined with the collaborative power of co-investing, can lead to outsized returns and transformative societal impact.

At the heart of deep tech is a solution to a problem. But not just any problem – these are complex issues that are becoming increasingly difficult to manage – from climate change, resource scarcity, chronic illness, through to food insecurity.

As venture capital investors, we focus on early-stage funding, particularly at the seed to Series A stages. Our ultimate goal is to guide these companies towards successful commercialisation which would enable them to scale their impact, maximise their potential, and solve some of humanity's most significant challenges.

Mastitis, the most common and costly disease affecting dairy cows, is a significant challenge for the global dairy industry. As the son of a farmer, Liam Kampshof understood the importance of good udder health and milk quality to farm productivity. He also saw first-hand the damage that mastitis could have on individual animals and entire farms.

TUS Holdings is committed to driving innovation and supporting ground-breaking ventures aligns perfectly with Pacific Channel’s focus on investing in the future of food, health and the environment and we look forward to the potential worldwide network of benefits this could bring to our portfolio companies.

Professor Cather Simpson sums up the importance of deep tech in a nutshell: "People don’t go backwards. We are not going to return to an agrarian society where everyone grows their own food. Technology has always been the engine of improvement – of moving humanity forward. This is true whether it’s the smartphone or the scythe."

Join our team and gain unparalled exposure to deep-tech start-up companies in New Zealand. We have an opportunity to bring a new Associate, Senior Associate, or Investment Manager into the team. We believe in tailoring the role to the right individual, providing them with support to develop and grow further. If you are seeking the next challenge in your career and have the skills and experience relevant to these roles, we would love to hear from you.

Explaining the challenge Leon is attempting to solve is relatively simple. As our global population increases, we need more food to support this growth. Yet, at the same time, because of our heavy reliance on using natural resources to produce this food [unless we change our practices] we will eventually reach a point where the number of natural resources being utilised is unsustainable. Here's why we invested in Nanobubble Agritech.

Tāmata Hauhā partners with Māori landowners along their journey and by providing them with the right capital, resources, expertise, and knowledge, can assist them to make their whenua more valuable.

Our ethos is to unlock the potential of deep technology companies by exploring the opportunities that global markets have to offer. By bridging New Zealand startups to larger markets in Greater China, Europe and the US. By investing in these deep tech companies and facilitating access to international markets, Pacific Channel aims to maximise their impact and scalability.

Ask our team what gets them out of bed in the morning, while the financial returns are important, it’s the impact we’re able to create by investing in technologies that are solving significant global challenges facing our future.

Harmony is when you bring the right people together with the right ideas, the right resources, and the right level ofunderstanding, so you can increase the chances of success. But with deep tech, its not as easy as it sounds. Dr Robert Powell explains.

With the release of the Technology Investment Network's (TIN) 2023 report into Aotearoa New Zealand’s tech investment ecosystem and those who are most active in it, we thought we'd provide some insights into why NZ needs more foreign investment and why deep tech is an attractive investment proposition..

Often people define commercialisation as taking the company or technology to 'the next step or level', and they're not wrong, but importantly you need a roadmap and a team who are always thinking about the next step, and the one after, and the one after that.

Pacific Channel and Singpore-based venture capital fund, TRIREC sign a MOU to drive innovation, foster growth, and unlock new opportunities with a specific focus on tech that will reshape the future of our environment

Pacific Channel leads a $2m investmet into Upstream Medical Technologies to support the advancement of a ground-breaking diagnostic marker for heart disease

Unleasing deep tech potential. This article examines the importance of understanding the technology and the surrounding patent landscape.

At the heart of our approach we desire to understand. Deep tech is dynamic so by gaining a comprehensive understanding of how technology works and delving into the landscape of protecting the science, we can establish a solid foundation to evaluate and assess potential investments.

Safeguarding our environment is a hotly debated topic, and quite rightly, as it’s one of the most pressing issues that humankind faces. There is no single solution or set of solutions that will reverse the impact climate change is having on our environment, and on our future. This is why the whole of society needs to get involved – change can’t just be up to the few, the ‘many’ have to come together to play a part. In this article we examine the role specialised venture capital plays in advancing these solutions.

Having a team which is exit minded, that has the skill set to think about who the potential acquirer of a deep tech company might be and what groundwork needs to take place between now and then to make that event likely gives us a far better chance of achieving a positive outcome for our investors and the company itself.

For us, deep tech represents the novel scientific or engineering innovations that have the potential to solve some of the world’s biggest social and environmental challenges – the future of our food, our health and our environment.

At the time, Neil and Richard weren’t looking for a huge capital investment- they wanted enough to prove the concept worked. Like all deep-tech innovations, there’s always a risk that the investment might not pay off, but it’s important to ask, ‘What if it does?’

What sets Pacific Channel apart is our approach to assessing deep tech investments. Our multidisciplinary team which includes scientists and engineers enables us to conduct specialist due diligence on prospective deep tech investments, unravelling the complexities associated with cutting-edge technologies and assessing their market potential.

Dr Ashwath Sundaresan is incredibly passionate about the future of our environment and leads our investments that focus on clean tech and advanced engineering.

Because of the nature of deep tech, the companies developing the technology face unique challenges. Once we’ve made an investment into a deep tech company, our involvement doesn’t end there. In addition to capital, we provide resources, networks, skills and expertise to help these companies achieve their ambition.

Ever since our first investment in 2020, our long-term vision for Orbis Diagnostics has been that it could be the solution to a multi-billion-dollar, global problem. Here’s why we invested.

As a deep-tech venture capital fund, we are commonly asked how we know “what potential investments will have a measurable, and sustainable influence on our future and provide a return to our investors?”

When we connect game changing technology with venture capital investment and capability, we can make what might seem the impossible, possible. The due diligence process is key to our investment decision making and because of the complex nature of deep tech, to determine the opportunity requires specialised knowledge, skills and an ability to examine the hypothesis, the technology and the people.

Our ability to think flexibly provides our investors a diverse offering in how they might want to invest. Returns – both financial and impact are at the forefront of our investment philosophy and through our unique approach we offer our investors diversification – geographic, risk, industry and asset class.

Optionality is a powerful driver of value. Through our venture capital investment strategies, we can deliver the individuals who are part of our Pacific Channel network options to participate in follow-on investments, at later stages of a company’s journey.

When we get to the point where we are comfortable talking about founders, researchers, and entrepreneurs in their own right rather than adding ‘male’ or ‘female’ in front to define the founder or entrepreneur, we [and to clarify, ‘we’ refers to the venture capital sector] will be truly embracing equity.

Venture capital companies have a unique opportunity to drive gender diversity and inclusion within the deep tech ecosystem. 50% of our population is female which means we need solutions to the significant issues that could impact this population. Arguably, while males are very capable of conceptualising and driving the development of these technologies, diversity of thought certainly helps ensure that female-dominated issues are being addressed.

The company behind the world’s first implantable long-term brain pressure sensor, New Zealand start-up Kitea Health, has secured $6m funding from investors to scale its clinical trial programme and accelerate entry into global markets.

The potential rewards of deep tech are significant. But the success is dependent on the ability of each company, and the capability of the team, including its investors to meet the challenges. The lived experience and the unique perspective our team brings to this journey ensures we can equip these companies to solve some very significant problems facing our future

The day we first established the deep-tech venture capital company, the name Pacific Channel worked. And it still fits today. It’s a true representation of what our team continues to offer researchers, innovators, and investors.

Generally there is a story behind the name of a company. Pacific Channel means exactly that - a channel across the pacific that enables companies based in New Zealand to access some of the world's largest markets.

Deep tech could arguably be considered the venture capital of venture capital. It’s a really exciting space to be investing in because if we can help solve some of the globally significant challenges facing our health, our food sources and our environment, all of which are vitally important for our future, then we can create value and impact.

Emerald adds “Our goal with this award is to encourage more women to enter the commercialisation space. By providing them access to the right people, the right support and the right skills and networks, we’re helping shape the next generation of founders and bringing more diversity to the development of research."

Led by Blair Jamieson and Lance Iwikau, Tāmata Hauhā works with Māori landowners to provide strategies and practical funding to develop unproductive land into productive assets.

When Pacific Channel finds a deep-tech innovation they think is really exciting, and makes an investment, Steph and his team first reaches out to potential corporate acquirers globally to confirm there is interest should the innovation be successfully developed. If Pacific Channel decides to invest Steph and his team then reach out to select investors in New Zealand and around the world and say, “hey, this is what we’re investing in and why, do you want to co-invest with us?”.

We believe deep tech has the potential to solve existential crises like climate change and the quality and longevity of our lives. By supporting brilliant scientists and academics, we provide specialised venture capital at seed through to Series A stages, guidance, and resources for their technology to succeed.

Shaping our world tomorrow requires a deep understanding of the role science and engineering-based technologies will play in solving the challenges we will face in the future, the ability to assess which opportunities are capable of making a difference, and how venture capital investment can assist in making these potential opportunities into real solutions.

As a venture capital company, we prioritise the cultivation of talent. By investing in the growth and development of talented individuals – our own team and our founders and entrepreneurs, we can foster a thriving entrepreneurial culture, driving our own investment success while also contributing to the overall growth of the startup ecosystem.

By evaluating system risks alongside other investment factors, such as technological feasibility, market potential, and intellectual property protection, we can mitigate the potential risks and rewards associated with a deep tech investment.

Entrepreneurs are the centre of economic growth and innovation and we’re committed to supporting early-stage entrepreneurs to rapidly scale and innovate their technologies as they build globally successful, category-defining businesses to deliver solutions to some of our most pressing global challenges.

Our investment focus on the future of healthcare, food and our environment stems from the recognition of their critical importance in addressing global challenges and improving the well-being of humanity. They’re interconnected, and progress in one of the areas often has positive implications for the others.

Geospatial Analysis + Artificial Intelligence (GeoAI) is a new field of study that combines geospatial methodologies with data science in solutions estimated to be worth over $200b in the next five years. GeoAI is increasingly seen as a foundational technology across many industries, from healthcare to energy, improving public health outcomes and population well-being to ensuring environmental compliance and optimising physical assets and infrastructure.

Pacific Channel is excited to be leading a $4.5m seed round into Rotorua-based clean-tech company Cetogenix. There is a lot to love about Cetogenix - it’s an excellent example of how new biotechnology can enable the building of an attractive business while also accelerating decarbonisation goals.

VC’s are definitely making a concerted effort to increase gender equality but we need to do more to make sure females don’t fall through the gaps.

As a deeptech VC, we often see a variety of businesses and companies solving extremely complex problems. Many of the scientists and entrepreneurs we talk to know a lot more than us about their specific subject matter. The first conversation I have is often exciting – these people have dedicated a large chunk of their lives in this new venture and are excited by the possibilities and impact it brings.

Pacific Channel is delighted to have led the seed round for TasmanIon, a new spinout from Victoria University of Wellington (VUW) focussing on commercialising new aluminium ion batteries.

I am cautiously optimistic about the future and am also excited to see New Zealand innovations addressing these big global challenges. As we shift beyond a “lithium only” future, I am excited to see how Pacific Channel can help foster these technologies and scientists to help scale these to a global audience.

Pacific Channel's portfolio company Orbis Diagnostics has partnered with Air New Zealand in a trial to test a group of their frontline staff for their COVID-19 immunity levels.

We’ve helped the Talalelei Life Futures Funds since its inception in 2018. It began when Talalelei died saving a Chinese New Zealander, caught in a rip on the south coast of Samoa. To honour Tala’s memory and his life-giving spirit, the fund offers scholarships to young Samoans into tertiary education, an otherwise unattainable path to a better life.

CertusBio has secured a $4.6m investment to accelerate plans for growth in New Zealand and globally. The Christchurch-based company offers biosensor technology to food producers that improves production efficiencies and reduces the cost of treating wastewater.

Orbis is well placed to continue to progress and reach its planned market entry in Q1 2022. The company is currently preparing for a $10m Series A capital raise that is expected to launch in August 2021.

Pacific Channel is working to support Geo40 in their valuable work for the environment. The company’s early work on lithium attracted the attention of Bill Gates’ climate-change fund, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, who indirectly invested in Geo40 via Swedish affiliate Baseload Capital.

We’ve just announced our $2m investment into Quantifi Photonics’ $15m capital raise alongside Punakaiki Fund, Simplicity, Nuance Connected Capital, Aspire and K1W1.

Vortex Power Systems is a venture formed out of the University of Auckland that is developing technology to generate electricity from waste heat emitted by thermal and industrial processes. Pacific Channel made an early investment in Vortex’s pre-seed round and the company delivered on its milestones.

Pacific Channel's Fund II will invest the fund into deep-tech ventures built around breakthrough technology, solving worthwhile problems and creating meaningful global impact and value.

Orbis Diagnostics, an Auckland-based Pacific Channel portfolio company developing an immunity test for Covid-19, has just signed a significant partnership with French multinational IDEMIA.

Orbis Diagnostics, a Pacific Channel Fund II portfolio company, is aiming to reduce this global and economic impact through providing peace of mind through immunity testing will re-enable movement during a pandemic.

InsituGen is developing a novel test which we believe will revolutionise steroid testing. InsituGen was formed around this innovation by Dr Heather and Otago Innovation with funding and support from Pacific Channel

Vortex Power Systems – a spin out from the University of Auckland’s Wind Engineering lab, is developing a novel method of generating electricity from wasted heat, has achieved a key milestone in validating its technology. Pacific Channel Fund I led the first round of investment into the company to enable it to undertake a proof of concept to validate the key to its technology.

We are proud to announce that $45m has now been committed to Pacific Channel Fund II; an NZ$50m early-stage investment fund focused on science and advanced engineering ‘deep-tech’ companies in New Zealand.

Pacific Channel has released its updated internal analysis of Living Cell Technologies (ASX:LCT).

Upstream has developed a novel technology platform built on years of research which provides a new class of diagnostic test designed for use in emergency departments. The potential market size for this test is estimated to be US$2bn.

Mastaplex’s product provides dairy farmers with mastitis diagnosis and antibiotic treatment recommendations. Mastaplex is currently seeking up to $950,000 of new equity investment. Mastaplex has now raised $720,000 and is seeking the remaining ~$230,000.

Based on 9 years of research, Hot Lime Labs are commercialising a patented system that will recover clean CO2 from renewable forestry and agricultural waste. Pacific Channel is an existing investor in the company.

Will Charles, the Executive Director of Commercialisation said “we are delighted for Cather and her team, and very pleased that working with local investors like Pacific Channel is starting to bear fruit in getting the great science done at the University of Auckland into global supply chains. The recycling of capital is critical to our ability to continue to fund the next generation of great start-ups, of which Cather and her lab are generators of.”

CertusBio’s lead product, Milk-Guard, is the first real-time interference-free biosensor monitoring device aimed at the dairy processing industry. The biosensor detects lactose and milk in dairy processing wastewater and puts control in the hands of process operators to dramatically reduce processing loses.

Living Green is pleased to confirm that it has received an investment commitment of NZ$3.2m from a strategic corporate investor introduced to the company by Pacific Channel. The investor is one of Shanghai’s 30 largest corporates with extensive distribution channels across Asia.

NZeno is a kiwi company aiming to supply pig kidneys suitable for human transplantation. Pacific Channel has been working with NZeno since the company’s inception and has invested in its seed round.

Pacific Channel will be hosting one law student, who will spend up to 200 hours in its office this year being mentored by Associate Lachlan Nixon, Associate, a former law student himself.

Regen is a Agtech start-up that provides specialist software services to farmers for daily, accurate nitrogen, water and effluent irrigation recommendations. The company has just secured ~$1.1m of investment, which was underwritten and led by Pacific Channel.

Engender believes its technology can be brought to market with low capital and low operating costs. Three of the world’s largest artificial insemination companies have signed option-to-license agreements.

Congratulations to Professor Cather Simpson, scientific founder of Engender Technologies and Orbis Diagnostics, for securing over $12.8 million of new science funding announced this week by Prime Minister Bill English and Science and Innovation Minister Paul Goldsmith.

Engender’s Chief Scientist, Associate Professor Cather Simpson, has been named a primary industry champion. This appointment confirms that Engender’s technology addresses a significant market need.

Engender has just closed a $4.5 million capital raise led by Pacific Channel. With an original target of $2.5 million, the company closed fully over subscribed.

The grant report is an annual guide to securing international grant funding for Australasian life sciences research. The 2015 version contains a review of grant sources from the EU, US and Japan.

Read about Footfall’s journey in New Zealand from finding capital investment, securing our licensing deal and building on our IP portfolio. CEO Roland Toder also discusses the importance of raising capital and their current investment round which is now open.

The medicine development company has just closed a successful million dollar plus fundraising round and has just announced an extension to the crowdfunding component to May 18 so that sizeable investors have time to place the funding required. Breathe Easy is using crowdfunding platform Snowball Effect to raise the final $350,000 needed to take its new cystic fibrosis therapy, Citramel, into Phase 1/IIa clinical trial.

After raising initial equity capital and providing its interim management team, Pacific Channel was delighted to assist New Zealand smart fabric technology start-up, Footfalls & Heartbeats secure a significant licensing deal with one of the world’s largest medical compression therapy companies, Medi GmbH&Co.KG

The staggered deal provides Engender with US$250,000 of resources upfront to consolidate the microfluidic chip and conduct trials, plus a further potential US$1.5million of investment and resources to develop its unique technology to prototypes.

Living Green has proven itself as a commercial scale manufacturer and marketer of green products sold through both industrial and consumer channels. Continued growth across the company is inevitable to meet the demand generated from these latest signings. To fund the resource required Living Green will seek up to $2million of new equity investment with an offer opening in coming weeks.

Footfalls & Heartbeats Limited (FHL) has closed oversubscribed – at $1.5 million – with investors from New Zealand, Australia and the United States for what has become one of the most successful capital raising rounds of 2013 for early stage New Zealand technology companies.

D’Arcy Polychrome won a Grand Awards at the 2013 StartmeupHK awards in Hong Kong. The Auckland-based company is backed by Pacific Channel, the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund and private investors. It works closely with Callaghan Innovation to refine and produce its revolutionary dry, easily dispersible, polychromatic colour granules used for colouring building materials such as paints, concrete and plaster.

This is a significant achievement for Pacific Channel and follows its initiative in 2012 to work with ICE HOUSE to bring together a group of approximately 30 ICE Angel Chinese investors to create a forum in which high net worth Chinese can assess investment opportunities in early stage New Zealand companies.

Pacific Channel is delighted to announce that Blair Pritchard is joining the company in the role of partner, working alongside Brent Ogilvie.

What it taught me is that success comes from having a committed group of people with a shared and meaningful mission and a lot of support behind them

As the end of the year fast approaches, Pacific Channel would like to thank you for your engagement during the year and extend season’s greetings.

Based in Auckland, FHL is commercialising world-leading textile sensor technology which has a multitude of market applications. Footfalls & Heartbeats Limited (FHL) seeks a senior staff member who can drive product development for this exciting, early stage, high-growth company.

FHL is developing intelligent textiles to allow remote physiological monitoring,capturing heart rate,respiration & joint movement data in real-time. Pacific Channel becomes a cornerstone shareholder in Footfalls and Heartbeats Limited.

A director of Landcare Research’s DNA diagnostic facility, EcoGene®, has won the inaugural Women in Science Entrepreneurship Award sponsored by Pacific Channel, New Zealand’s leading venture development and investment firm and the Association for Women in the Sciences (AWIS).

Pacific Channel Limited, New Zealand’s leading venture development and investment firm focused on early-stage life science and clean-tech innovation led $1 million of new equity investment for Caldera Health Ltd, enabling the company to advance development of its technology to diagnose prostate cancer.

Pacific Channel Limited, New Zealand’s leading venture development and investment firm focused on early-stage life science and clean-tech innovation, announced today the closing of $350,000 new equity investment into Regen which it led with AngelHQ, Wellington’s angel investment club in exchange for equity in the company.

Pacific Channel managing director Brent Ogilvie has gained more than $1.8 million in capital for two companies he took through the Unlimited Investment Challenge.

Pacific Channel Director, Brent Ogilvie, said “the sale of Somnaceutics’ business assets was very pleasing because it demonstrates that start-up companies based on New Zealand science can be commercially successful and generate returns for investors in a short period”.

Pacific Channel congratulates Ms Bridgit Hawkins and Re:Gen Limited for winning the TUANZ Innovation Rural award with Re:Gen, a dairy-effluent management system.